lebowits

So what is everyone making THIS weekend? Last weekend I attempted to caramelize white chocolate and make a ganache from the result. I also made a fluid mango caramel for piping into shells. Looking back on the results I think I need to cook the white chocolate a little longer in order to really get that "dulce de leche" color and flavor. The caramel came out really well, however I think I'm going to add more mango puree next time and cook it to a higher temp so it's not quite as fluid. I also finally got around to making a pate de fruit (mango) and did some almond rocher just for fun. I've been thinking about adding rocher, coconut "haystacks" and a white chocolate/pistachio/candied orange peel/puffed rice piece to my line up for the coming season. This weekend, I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to make. I'm thinking about lemon grass and coconut, maybe Greweling's "Habanos", or a simple dark chocolate/chile (I'm thinking ancho).

I'm not ignoring you on that, just simply haven't reached that far down the list yet. It is the next item though.

Attendees as of 23 February 2010 Yes lebowits David J. chocoera Marmish Kerry Beal +1 RobertM psantucc pringle007 Linda S curls truffleguy ejw50 ChrisHennes +1 jimdiii 95% Yes ArtMills +1 brokenscale Desperately wanting to Darienne Lior beacheschef Maybe Beth Wilson Desiderio

Perhaps the void is created in the bright color prior to the back spray of black cocoa butter.

I couldn't find a picture of it either. Essentially it looks like a skinny speed rack. I've assembled a similar rack used for storing the boxes that Tomric sells for storing finished pieces. Fundamentally, both are standard speed racks with shorter standards holding the sides apart from each other. Assembly is pretty easy and just needs a socket and driver. You can do it with a crescent wrench or other similar tool but it simply isn't as fast.

I'm at the SpringHill. I can manage on their continental breakfast fare, but I really have to make my own coffee B-}= Thanks for arranging the really great rates. I'm hoping you won't have to rely solely on their breakfast fare. As Kerry did last year, I'm going to try and have a variety of breakfast foods available for Saturday and Sunday morning. No promises yet what I'll have, but it's on the list of "to do".

The 13 gauge is what I use for my Martellato guitar. b ← 13 gauge is how many mm? ← It is about .08cm or 1/32nd of an inch b ← I had hubby measure the wire on mine with his calipers. It's .02 inches (same as .05mm) which apparently is 8 guage. I've ordered a roll - it's going to be something over 900 feet. I'll bring along some 200 ft rolls to the conference if anyone wants some. I'll buy some from you! I broke several strings on my 15mm frame a few weeks ago.

I'm guessing that you're staying longer than the 2 or 3 nights you would need just for the workshop. Coming in Thursday and leaving Monday. Of course I haven't booked transportation yet. Let me know what I can do to help.

I'm guessing that you're staying longer than the 2 or 3 nights you would need just for the workshop.

Attendees as of 18 February 2010 Yes lebowits David J. chocoera Marmish Kerry Beal +1 RobertM psantucc pringle007 Linda S curls truffleguy ejw50 ChrisHennes +1 95% Yes ArtMills +1 brokenscale Desperately wanting to Darienne Lior beacheschef Maybe Beth Wilson Desiderio

For those attending, can you please let me know where you will be staying either by sending me a PM or posting? I'd like to arrange a room for our Friday night gathering at the location where the majority will be staying. It will cut down on moving about, especially if we start having a drink or 2.

I bought some water tight containers at "The Container Store" which are sized pretty close to fit the molds. I've got my seasonal and "molds I don't use anymore" put away and the ones I use frequently in containers easily accessible in the kitchen in a rack. The Tomric mold rack is also very nice as it fits most molds perfectly and rolls around the floor.

I heard it was done with a q-tip. I think Kerry is right. The mold is sprayed with the color or colors used. I suspect a "back spray" of thinned chocolate or black cocoa butter was used to punch up the color. Then the void was created using a q-tip or rubber tip depending on how fine a line you might want.

Attendees as of 16 February 2010 Yes lebowits David J. chocoera Marmish Kerry Beal RobertM psantucc pringle007 Linda S curls truffleguy ejw50 95% Yes ArtMills +1 brokenscale Desperately wanting to Darienne Lior beacheschef Maybe Beth Wilson Desiderio ChrisHennes +1

when i lived in oklahoma i used to take southwest flights from okc to baltimore for 50 bucks. 100 round trip, the metro will cost you 10. Parking at the airport is expensive, normans only 45 min away have someone drop you off at the airport if at all possible. Last month i left my car there for 4 days and paid over 100 bucks Those days are long gone! Today, it looks like the least expensive flights are $128 each way. In order to get that, you'll have to fly Thursday April 15 and it doesn't seem to matter much for the return. I hope we'll see you then!

Please make sure to book your hotel accommodation BEFORE the March 12 cut-off date for our group rate!

Event Update Event Information Event: 2010 Candy & Confectionery Workshop Dates: Friday, 16 April 2010 - Sunday, 18 April 2010 Location: L'Academie de Cuisine, 16006 Industrial Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 2087 USA [map] Note: This event is not sponsored or endorsed by L'Academie de Cuisine. Fee: USD $150.00 This fee is intended to cover all facility rental, required staff labor, and materials (edible or otherwise) for the event. Any leftover funds at the end of the event will be donated to the eGullet Society. Accommodation Reservations should be made by Friday, 12 March 2010 in order to guarantee the group rate. Links have been provided for each hotel below. The links to the first 2 hotels will take you directly to the hotel web site with the appropriate group code. Springhill Suites - USD $64 - $104 including breakfast [map] Courtyard by Marriott - USD $64 [map] Homestead Studio Suites - USD $69.99 (kitchenette) [map] Call the hotel directly at +1-301-987-9100 and ask for the "eGullet Workshop" group block when making a reservation. Agenda (tentative as of 12 November 2009) Friday, 16 April 2010 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm Modern Truffle & Praline Techniques with Albert Uster Imports Corporate Pastry Chef Drew Long Albert Uster Imports is a provider of pastry and chocolate products for the professional chef. They are located next door to L'Academie de Cuisine and have a long history with the school. Chef Logan assumed his position at AUI in November 2009 after leading teams at a number of 4 and 5 start resorts. 7:00 - ??? Evening Social & Chocolate Tasting Show off your work! Bring a little something to share. We'll find a nosh or two and some wine and drinks and spend a little time getting to know each other better. Saturday, 17 April 2010 8:00 - 8:30 Breakfast and Introductions 8:30 - 10:00 "Bean to Bar" - Grinding Cacao and Nuts @ Home - Andal Balu of Inno Concepts/CocaoTown 10:00 - 10:15 Break 10:15 - 11:45 Introductory Chocolate Techniques (tempering, ganaches, molding, etc.) - Kerry Beal a.k.a. "The Chocolate Doctor" 10:15 - 11:45 Flavor Dynamics - A discussion crafting and combining flavors into your products - Leader lebowits & TruffleGuy 11:45 pm - 1:00 pm Lunch 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm Lab Work - Putting Theory into Practice 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Cleanup 7:00 pm Group Dinner - Proposed Roundtable Discussion - Starting a Business - Lessons Learned (All) Sunday, 18 April 2010 8:30 am Breakfast 9:00 am - 10:30 "Decorating your Products, Color, Texture, Fluffy Bits on Top" - Either open discussion or speaker TBD 10:30 - 10:45 Break 10:45 - 12:00 Lab Work - Continuation from Saturday & Decoration Techniques 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Lunch 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm Lab Work - Continued 3:30 - 4:30 Final Cleanup Attendees as of 15 February 2010 Yes lebowits David J. chocoera Marmish Kerry Beal RobertM psantucc pringle007 Linda S curls truffleguy ejw50 95% Yes ArtMills +1 Desperately wanting to Darienne Lior beacheschef Maybe Beth Wilson Desiderio brokenscale ChrisHennes +1

Glad you can join us! I'll start organizing what we'll need to bring right around the first of March. I'm still working on getting some sponsorship worked out. I expect that mostly what we'll need are melters, caramel rulers, molds, etc.

Attendees as of 2 February 2010 Please let me know if there are any errors. Yes lebowits David J. chocoera Marmish Kerry Beal RobertM psantucc pringle007 Linda S curls 95% Yes ArtMills +1 truffleguy Desperately wanting to Darienne Lior beacheschef Maybe Beth Wilson Desiderio brokenscale ChrisHennes +1 ejw50

Having purchased quite a few books by now, I would heartily endorse the first Greweling book. It's the only book I've got which covers so MANY topics so thoroughly. If you're not going to be making products for sale, you'll have to scale down the formulas, but it's a wonderful book. I must confess, I have an addiction- I love buying cookbooks, pastry books, chocolate books. I've bought most of the books that have chocolate in their title, and I'm trying (pretty unsuccessfully in the meantime ) to cut back. I have his first book, and absolutely love it, and though my first instinct was to buy anything with his name on it, I was wondering if it has any added value over the first one or if it just sort of simplifies the first one... Generally I've found (so far) that the 2nd book covers most, if not all of the product types covered in the first book. What I've found valuable is that many of the discussions/descriptions have been reworked to make them easier to understand. Ironically, all of the measures are English vs metric where in the first book, everything was metric weights. Further, the formulas are scaled down for the home cook or hobbyist which can help since you won't find yourself with 2 - 3 kg of product to divest of. There are also a few products NOT included in the first book. I'm very happy to have purchased the new book.

Here are a couple of pictures of "Melt My Heart". I need to play with the formula a bit more as it didn't scale up the way I expected. It still tastes quite good. Sorry for the fuzzy image. I need to figure out how to get a good close up with this camera.

Say it ain't so! I hope you'll find a way to make it. P.S. let you an e-mail a few days ago.

Having purchased quite a few books by now, I would heartily endorse the first Greweling book. It's the only book I've got which covers so MANY topics so thoroughly. If you're not going to be making products for sale, you'll have to scale down the formulas, but it's a wonderful book.

Yesterday I made milk chocolate hearts filled with vanilla milk chocolate ganache. Today I'm making what I'm calling "Melt My Heart" which is a white chocolate variation on the "melt away" using cinnamon oil as the flavoring agent in place of mint. This results in something like a "red hot" for about 10 seconds before the eutectic effect kicks in and cools everything down so you taste the white chocolate. The molds will be smeared with bright red cocoa butter before casting the shells and the center will also be colored with red cocoa butter.

Attendees as of 28 January 2010 Yes lebowits beacheschef David J. chocoera Marmish Kerry Beal RobertM psantucc pringle007 Linda S curls 95% Yes ArtMills +1 truffleguy Desperately wanting to Darienne Lior Maybe Beth Wilson Desiderio brokenscale ChrisHennes +1 ejw50